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Hannah Holmes A mesmerizing expedition around our dusty world Some see dust as dull and useless stuff. But in the hands of author Hannah Holmes, it becomes a dazzling and mysterious force; Dust, we discover, built the planet we walk upon. And it tinkers with the weather and spices the air we breathe. Billions of tons of it rise annually into the air--the dust of deserts and forgotten kings mixing with volcanic ash, sea salt, leaf fragments, scales from butterfly wings, shreds of T-shirts, and fireplace soot. Eventually, though, all this dust must settle. The story of restless dust begins among exploding stars, then treks through the dinosaur beds of the Gobi Desert, drills into Antarctic gla...
The pilot boat just moved away and'its lights are already fading towards the coast of Northeastern Queensland over which Saturn is going to set. There is still quite some time to go before dawn. The big ship has now regained her cruise speed following its roughly northwesterly route in the South Coral Sea along the chain of nearby reefs. Few people are around at this time, except a dozen early birds sharing some 'shipshaping' exercise on the top deck and taking advantage of the relative coolness of the night. On my way down to the stateroom, I cannot but stop once more in front of that elegant composition by British artist Brigid Collins (1963-) hanging in the monumental staircase between Decks 7 and 8. That piece 2 of art, a 1.8x 1.8m oil on canvas plus collage entitled Berinl in honour of the Danish explorer, gathers together many navigation-related themes of the time: Suns, Moons, planets, sky maps, astrolabes, small telescopes, as well as drawings, diagrams and charts of all kinds. It is somehow a digest of how astronomical information was then collected, made available, and used.
This ESO workshop, which took place in September 1995 on a topic that at a first glance could be considered rather specialized, attracted an unpre dictably large number of scientists. This certainly reflects the importance of this field, which has lost its seemingly esoteric character, in a wider astro physical context. To give as much room as possible in these proceedings to the targeted talks, no presentation of the Very Large Telescope Observatory has been included. All readers missing such a presentation are reminded that up-to date in-depth information about the VLT status is available electronically.1 Papers were given concerning observations in the entire electromagnetic spectrum from x-rays to mm-waves, i.e., exceeding 22 octaves in frequency. The VLT as any ground-based optical observatory can only address at best 7 octaves. Nevertheless the VLT, most likely the only ground-based observa tory specifically designed to access all these 7 octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum practically in parallel, will undoubtedly be a tool of extreme value to this field.
The ability of storing, managing, and giving access to the huge quantity of data collected by astronomical observatories is one of the major challenges of modern astronomy. At the same time, the growing complexity of data systems implies a change of concepts: the scientist has to manipulate data as well as information. Recent developments of the `WorldWideWeb' bring interesting answers to these problems. The book presents a wide selection of databases, archives, data centers, and information systems. Clear and up-to-date descriptions are included, together with their scientific context and motivations. Audience: This volume provides an essential tool for astronomers, librarians, data specialists and computer engineers.
A substantial update of this award-winning and highly regarded cosmology textbook, for advanced undergraduates in physics and astronomy.